iPad file sizes differ from PC/Mac..?

[cinca]

I have been moving some large media files between my MacBook and video player apps on my iPad and noticed that for some reason the file sizes are always smaller on the iPad.

My Mac file system lists a video file as being 1.44 GB but when I copy it to my iPad the file size appears as 1.22 GB in iTunes. Similarly, 1.62 GB video file on the Mac copies to my iPad and is listed as being only 1.54 GB. I even copied the files back from the iPad to the Mac and they grow larger.

There doesn't seem to be anything missing in the video files I scanned forward and the end credits are there – so the full file is intact – but somehow it appears the files gets smaller one copy to the iPad.

Does the iPad and Mac measure file size differently? Is this because they use different filesystems? Are the files being copied over correctly? I'm copying them and making the assumption I can watch them on my iPad and deleting them from my MacBook so I'd rather not find out there's an issue after I have deleted the originals.

An explanation or any help or advice would be appreciated!!

 

[Abazigal]

I noticed the same thing too. Gigs of pdfs on my mac take up just 100+ mb of space on my ipad. Not that I am complaining, but genuinely curious as well.

 

[cinca]

I noticed the same thing too. Gigs of pdfs on my mac take up just 100+ mb of space on my ipad. Not that I am complaining, but genuinely curious as well.

Weird. Maybe there is some sort of file compression going on? My large files are video files which don't compressed very much – hence the slightly smaller size. PDFs, I am under the impression, can compress quite substantially – which may explain your much larger file size reduction.

Looks like we have a genuine mystery on our hands… Anyone have any other guesses?

 

[cinca]

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

 

[Ccrew]

Speculation? 1024 vs 1000 on a meg file size.

 

[TheWheelMan]

I recently sent a Word file to a customer (I'm on a PC, she's on a Mac), and when she sent the file back after making her edits, it was about 20% smaller. So I've been wondering the same thing.